1. Field of the Invention
The present invention involves pill dispensers for rotating pill disks or pill packages, and, more particularly, child resistant dispensers for use with pill packages such as blister pack disks.
2. Information Disclosure Statement
The following prior Art Patents illustrate the state of the art for pill dispensers with disks.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,279,651 to Gordon J. Thompson, describes a dispenser for use with a pill sandwiched between a flexible sheet and a rupturable sheet bonded together about the pill to define a sealed enclosure therefore, a generally planar wall having an opening therein slightly larger than the pill, means for holding said sealed enclosure with said rupturable sheet against said wall and with the pill aligned with said opening, manually actuatable means movable in a plane parallel to said wall, and wedge means carried by said surface engageable with said flexible sheet for pressing the pill through said opening and through said rupturable sheet.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,165,709 to John E. Studer, describes a tablet dispensing device which comprises a substantially flat support having a single tablet dispensing aperture therein. A tray is adapted to rotate on one surface of the support and has a plurality of openings therein disposed in a circular orientation. The openings are arranged to individually align in registration with the aperture upon rotation of the tray. The tray is adapted to receive a tablet dispensing package containing a plurality of tablets. A tablet is dispensed by pressing it from the package through its corresponding opening in the tray sequentially places each opening over the aperture in alignment therewith so that the remaining tablets can be individually dispensed.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,298,125 to Walter G. Berghahn and Jack Weinstein, describes a child resistant dispensing package for tablets and the like of the dial type provided with a dispenser opening in the upper section; the lower section is provided with a plurality of flexible tablet pockets that are covered over with a sheet of rupturable material (e.g. aluminum foil); the upper and lower sections are provided with location indicators to line the tablet pockets up with the dispenser opening; tablets are dispensed by pushing the tablet pockets with enough force to rupture the sheet material.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,778,054 to Robert E. Newell and Robert A. Fitzsimmons, describes a pack with a circular carrier disc provided with a plurality of containers arranged in a circle and each containing a dose of medicament in particulate form. The containers are puncturable to permit the medicament therein to be released.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,409,132 to Kees Kooijmans and Alfred H. Van Elk, describes a tablet dispenser, including a dispenser housing, a replaceable tablet package to be accommodated in the housing, an adjustable periodicity indicator and a single tablet dispensing aperture in the dispenser cover. The tablet package includes a cover, rotatably connected to the bottom portion of the package and provided with an opening which, upon use of the dispenser, is in alignment with the tablet dispensing aperture. The dispenser further includes a locking device to compel joint rotational movement of periodicity indicator and package bottom portion, and an operating member to effect stepwise rotation of the package bottom portion relative to said package cover.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,464,118 to Ulrich Grau and Gunter Ziegert, an apparatus for removing solid medications from blister packs, comprising a shell-shaped bottom part and a hood-shaped top part is provided with an axle. It further exhibits recesses, which are disposed concentrically to the axle. The one end of the axle is configured as a rotational axis and translational guide for the top part. The top part reaches over the bottom part and exhibits a hub, which is supported on the axle by means of a spring. Parallel to the hub on the top part there is a disposed ram, which, given an appropriate setting of the top part relative to the bottom part, is aligned with respectively one of the recesses. The other end of the axle is provided with a journal for receiving a bearing plate for the blister pack. The bearing plate exhibits holes, which form with the recesses of the bottom part passages for the ram.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,562,231 to Lawrence E. Lambelet, Jr. and Henry Passarotti, describes how a substantially circular tablet dispenser component system which may be adapted for a variable day start of a prescribed periodic tablet regimen. Also provided are a tablet dispenser kit, a tablet package adapted for filling the tablet dispenser system, methods of filling the tablet dispenser of the invention and methods of administering a prescribed regimen of medication using the tablet dispenser system of the invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,570,810 to Lawrence E. Lambelet, Jr. and Henry Passarotti, describes a substantially circular tablet dispenser component system which may be adapted for a variable day start of a prescribed periodic tablet regimen. Also provided are a tablet dispenser kit, a tablet package adapted for filling the tablet dispenser of the invention and methods of administering a prescribed regimen of medication using the tablet dispenser system of the invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,664,697 to Lawrence E. Lambelet, describes a self-actuating dispenser having a base, a pill container, and a means for cyclically indexing the pill container with respect to the base. The base has a pill exit aperture. The pill container, which houses the pills in individual compartments or cells, is movably attached to the base such that any pill cell can be aligned with the pill exit aperture. The pill cells are provided with open bottoms for loading and dispensing which are covered over by the base when attached thereto. The means for cyclically indexing provides that each pill cell in turn is brought into alignment with the pill exit aperture thereby singly dropping the resident pills in a series of dispensing cycles.
Notwithstanding the prior art, the present invention is neither taught nor rendered obvious thereby.